baby's all grown up

I cannot believe my "baby" sister will be graduating from high school today!  Sometimes I have to remind myself that she can drive (probably cause I can count on 1 hand how many times she has actually driven me around, instead of vice versa!).  What's even harder for me to believe is that in the fall she will go off to Auburn to begin her journey through college. I think I actually stopped and thought about that the other day in the car...how we may not see her until Thanksgiving, and I might have had to hold back a tear! 

And my mom! Oh goodness. Let's just say with two daughters getting married this year, and baby girl going off to college, my mom will be a wreck!  Seriously.  But I don't blame her.  How do you go from having your girls living at home in and out throughout college, to slowly one by one becoming an empty nester?  Both me and Katie lived at home for our first full year out of college.  Katie just moved out about a month ago. So, it's back to mom and Emily.  My mom is a tough gal though. And luckily me and Katie are still in town.

But back to Emily.  That girl has blown me away with the young lady she has grown up to be.  First of all, she's beautiful. Seriously. We kinda tease her all the time about getting all the good genes.  Me and Katie got "blessed" with our dad's nose and not so great skin.  Emily got all the right genes. She's tall like my dad's sisters, she's brilliant, and beautiful!  What more could you ask for? :)

So congrat's Emily!!  We are all so proud of you!  LOVE YOU!!!

sand, sun and music!

We had such a great weekend! The beach was awesome!! The weather was perfect- not too hot (most the time) and sunny every day.  So many of our friends were down there and we were able to come and go as we pleased from the music festival, trying to meet up with one another when we could. Most of the bands didn't start until the afternoon, so every morning we went to the pool.  One of my good friends Dana turned the big 2-5 on Saturday!  And our friends Steven and Mallorie even came home early from their honeymoon to attend the festival!

There's not really much more I can say!  Actually, I will say some of my favorite shows were STS9, Avett Brothers (even though I took an awesome nap on the sand during their show), Foo Fighters, and Paul Simon!  We heard several other bands, but those were the best (in my opinion!)

And now for the pictures :)

time to Hangout!

Gulf Shores is having their 2nd annual Hangout Music Festival this weekend, and we are SO EXCITED!!  Last year was the 1st year and Greg and I couldn't go, and since it was the first year we didn't really know quite what we were missing.  Well, after a few of our friends went last year and absolutely loved it, we decided this year we had to go...along with every single one of our other friends!  Seriously, almost every mutual friend we have is going...I'm pretty sure there's about 20 of us. 

We'll be on the beach for 3 days, listening to awesome music, and hanging out with good friends.  Unfortunately, I don't really know many of the artists that will be performing, but there's a few here and there that I like.  What's really annoying is of those few that I know, pretty much every one of them is playing at the same time as another one.  Go figure.  So, I'll be spending several hours listening to bands I've never heard of, and then for the next hour I'll be wanting to go back and forth between 2 artists I like!  Whatever. It'll be fun anyways.  The bands I DO know include Pretty Lights, Michael Franti, GirlTalk, Amos Lee, Foo Fighters, and the Avett Brothers.

Also, we will be celebrating my good friend Dana's 25th birthday this weekend!  It should be a good time.  I can't wait!

1 wedding down, 4 more to go...

Saturday night we went to the wedding of one of Greg's buddies from college.  Steven and Mallorie are just perfect for each other. They are outgoing, friendly, silly, and they compliment each other so well.  And you can tell they are just crazy about each other!  Friday night we celebrated the a rehearsal dinner at The Club, which was beautiful! Then on Saturday the guys hung out at the pool and grilled out, while Mallorie and her girls had a brunch together.  They got married at Canterbury Presbyterian Church followed by a reception at Avon Theatre downtown.  The ceremony was lovely, despite a few unruly flower girls and ring bearers on stage. Note to self: young children do NOT need to stand on stage during a wedding ceremony!!  I kinda thought that was an understood rule, but apparently not.  I love little Evey to death (our flower girl), but she will sit on the front pew with her daddy after she walks down the aisle :)

The reception was so much fun!  The tables were covered with burlap, Ball jars with votives, and neat little twig arrangements.  Levoy's Italian restaurant of Homewood catered the food, and it was quite yummy.  But the best part....the band!  The Negotiators (who will also perform at our reception) were so much fun! They play a mix of all kinds of music. And they really got the crowd going!  We all laughed hysterically at so many ridiculous dances going on throughout the night.  The groom's grandmother was dancing with groomsmen, a dance ring formed at one point with some of the guys jumping in the middle to "perform," we all joined in on the "Cupid Shuffle," and even Steven, his brother and a groomsman got on stage and performed a song with Steven on the guitar and singing lead vocals, his brother on the keyboard and groomsman on the drums.  And they sounded AMAZING!   It was so great!  Such a fun night weekend!  Hope all our weddings this year can be that fun :)

 two of MY bridesmaids :)

 love me some DK!!!

all of us with the beautiful bride 

(can you believe she sewed that party dress herself for the reception!? So adorable)

 the guys performing their song (ugh, I wish I could remember the name!)

Best wishes Steven and Mallorie!

busy bee

May is one of those months that flies by because it's so packed with stuff going on.  When you are in school it always seems so busy because you have final projects due, exams, graduations, awards programs, etc. etc. But even now that I've been out of school for a few years, May still remains a really buys month.

The last two weeks have flown by, because I've worked a lot, and when I haven't been working I've been celebrating birthdays, Mother's Day, and a wedding this weekend.  Yesterday was Katie's bday, and we actually celebrated it with dinner and ice cream with the family on Thursday night since Greg and I have wedding stuff going Friday and Saturday night.  But during the day on Friday, Katie, Emily and myself had lunch together, did some shopping, and even spent some time looking at bridesmaids dresses for my wedding. It was a good day :)

Today, one of Greg's fraternity brothers is getting married and Greg is a groomsman. Last night we went to the rehearsal followed by the rehearsal dinner at The Club.  It was lovely.  And after that a lot of their friends went out to celebrate some more, but this girl was tired and falling asleep in bed by 10:30pm.  If I knew I wasn't going to have a long night tonight with the wedding and reception, I might have felt bad about it, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer!  Here some pics from the rehearsal dinner...

Greg and I

 

roomie and her sweet boy

 

ah, and this would be the handsome groom so wonderfully showing off the city of Birmingham behind us. Thank you, tour guide Steven!

and of course, the lovely bride and groom

Tonight we will be enjoying their beautiful wedding followed by a reception at Avon Theatre.  And I'm really excited because their reception band (the Negotiators) is also the band we chose to play at our wedding reception. So I can't wait to get a preview!

And after all of that, May still won't slow down quite yet.  Next weekend we'll be traveling to Gulf Shores for the Hangout Music Festival. Then Emily has her highschool graduation the following week! And somewhere in all that I've GOT to get some more wedding plans worked out!  C'est la vie!

What is a Doozy Strap?

Well ladies and gentlemen, the Doozy Strap is a koozie-like drink holder that is designed to be worn around your neck allowing you to be hands-free when necessary.  Say you're at a party, and you hate to put your drink down.  With a Doozy, you won't have to.  The best use I've gotten out of my Doozy was on a white-water rafting trip.  Obviously, you should have both hands on your paddle, but it's a two-hour ride down the river and there are break points along the way.  So what's the only solution for taking a bottled water along with you?  The Doozy Strap.  And since we are going to The Hangout music festival in Gulf Shores in a few weeks, I'm thinking that will be my next best use of the Doozy.  Who wants to hold a drink in their hands while walking around the beach listening to music ALL DAY LONG?  Not me.  Hands-free is the way to go.

Greg and two of his buddies are in the business of selling the Doozy Strap. Doozies come in bottle ($6.99) and can ($5.99) sizes in a variety of colors (red, blue, white, gray, pink, and black). They used to have camo ones, but those are being redesigned and should be back in just a few weeks. The guys are also working on getting more colors, like purple and green, AND also in the works...*drum roll*...collegiate licensing, which means Doozies for your favorite college football teams!  And if all that's not cool enough, they just recently came up with a new design in efforts to lend support to the Red Cross of Alabama in light of the tornado disaster relief.  It is called the "We are Alabama" Doozy, and it is awesome!  Take a look!

The Doozy Strap is only available through their website:  Beverage Outfitters.  "We are Alabama" Doozies are available in bottle sizes for $10, and all proceeds will go the the Red Cross of Alabama!  These Doozies have been on sale for just 2 days so far, and they have already raised over $150!  Way to go guys!  Here's the catch though, they will only be available for purchase through the end of May, so get your orders in if you want to show your support and get a really cool Doozy!  I plan to get mine and wear it to the Alabama games next fall.  No, it's not technically a UA Doozy, but it's red, it says "Alabama" on it, and it supports disaster relief!  You can't beat that!!

So go buy a Doozy!  These people did, and I guarantee they didn't regret it  ;)